By Richmond B. Tholley
The leadership of the Sierra Leone People’s Party in the Northern District of Bombali has refuted and described allegations of embezzlement, corruption, and stealing against its chairman as total rubbish, baseless, malicious, and a deliberate ploy to tarnish the good name of their leader.
In an exclusive interview with Independent Observer Newspaper on Saturday, April 6, 2024, the Bombali District Secretary General of the SLPP, Abu Bakarr Taal, says the information has no iota of truth and it’s just a deliberate attempt by those he said wanted to be District Chairman to tarnish Saffa’s good name.
Recently, a plethora of publications from a section of the media have accused Mohamed Saffa, known by many as Mugambo, the SLPP BOMBALI DISTRICT CHAIRMAN, of stealing Le 1.6 billion given to him by the Party on behalf of the membership in Bombali District.
According to reports, Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) supporters in the Bombali District have issued a 21-day ultimatum to their district chairman because of the aforementioned allegations.
The funds allegedly embezzled by Saffa, the various media reports say, were intended to support constituencies, wards, and individual members but allegedly went missing under Saffa’s leadership.
But Taal says the allegations lack merit and describes them as a smear campaign to make the Chairman and, by extension, the current District Executive unpopular. Elections are underway, and a section of party members who wanted executive positions, Taal says, are going about doing what he called dirty politics.
Mugambo, as he is fondly called, is a mixer with friends cut across the political spectrum.
Before putting out the publications, the Secretary-General said the Party leadership in the district wasn’t contacted for comment but rather that the various media outlets only reported a one-sided story.
In fact, Abu Bakarr Taal says there was no particular time funds were provided to the Chairman for the purposes mentioned by the authors. The claims he stated were entirely false and fabricated.
“Let the National Executive confirm where or when, at any point in time, such money was given to the Chairman; then I will resign,” Taal affirmed.
Responding to allegations that the District Chairman spare-headed the election of opposition members into Traders and Drivers Union Chairmanships in the District, the Secretary-General says this is a cheap way of doing politics. The district chairman, he said, is a politician loved by many, and he has never interfered in any elections, so far as is alleged.
“Chairman Mugambo’s role in Bombali has always been to rapport with everyone else so he would bring in new members in the SLPP,” Taal says.
Maheid Kanu, the party’s public relations officer in the district, has issued a public notice refuting the allegations against the district chairman.
“We categorically state that these allegations are false, baseless, and unfounded,” Kanu, the District PRO, wrote in the public notice shared virally on social media.
According to Taal, the district leadership of the party will take legal action against the media organizations that published what he says were baseless allegations. He called on the party membership not to be distracted by baseless allegations rumored by detractors.
